CHANDIGARH: Hinduism has grown by 55.3% in Australia as India has overtaken China and New
Zealand to become the third largest country of birth for Australian residents, 2021 census data has found.
The census conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics also says that Punjabi language has shown the largest increase of 80.4% in the last five years.
The statistics are known as Estimated Resident Population (ERP). The census data provides a snapshot of the cultures and languages that make up Australia by providing figures on cultural diversity, country of birth, ancestry and languages used at home.
The 2021 census found that almost half of Australians have a parent born overseas (48.2%) and the population continues to be drawn from around the globe, with 27.6% reporting a birthplace overseas. Australia has welcomed more than one million people into Australia since 2017.
The largest increase in country of birth, outside Australia was India with 2,17,963 additional people counted. India has moved past China and New Zealand to become the third largest country of birth behind Australia and England. The second largest increase in country of birth was Nepal, with an additional 67,752 people, meaning the population of Nepali born has more than doubled since 2016.
The number of people who used a language other than English at home has increased by 7,92,062 from 2016 to over 5.5 million people. Meanwhile, Mandarin continues to be the most common language other than English used at home with 685,274 people speaking it, followed by Arabic with 367,159 people.
While Punjabi had the largest increase with the 2021 census showing over 239,000 people used Punjabi at home, an increase of 80.4% from 2016. Talking with this newspaper over phone, Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria, Australia President, Surya Prakash Soni said the number of Indians coming to Australia has increased in the last few years. “As per the latest Australian census, the demography of this country is rapidly changing and it is becoming multicultural,” he said.
Religions too growing in oz
Christianity (43.9%) is the most common religion in Australia. Hinduism has grown to 2.7 per cent of the population while Islam has grown to 3.2%